Final Mystery
by WhiteAeris4732
Summary: Cloud gets shot, but who shot him??? (My first REAL fanfic. Sorry if it's a bit confusing. Note: NO FLAMES PLEASE!)


Final Mystery  
Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 or FF8, but if I did...I'd make 'em do cra-------zy things! Now, onto the show! ERR...I mean, fanfic! ^.^;;  
  
It was a day, just like any other day in Midgar. Except, this day… was Thursday and it was raining in the gloomy city. There wasn't much to see in Midgar because most of it were homes for poor people; called the Slums. There were slums in every sector. Each sector in Midgar used to have a name, but over the years people forgot their names and just referred to them as numbered sectors.   
Despite the slums, there were some bright spots in Midgar. There was Wall Market, a.k.a. Sector 5, with its..ahem…unusual stores and its quite rude inhabitants. There was also a church, near Sector 6, where once a young woman named Aeris Gainsborough had spent her extra time tending to a flowerbed.   
And in "beautiful" Sector 7 was a bar called Tifa's 7th Heaven, which was owned by none other than Tifa Lockheart; and was also the hideout for AVALANCHE, a rebel group. Right across from the bar was a police station…  
  
"Hey! Wait! I gotta get this all down. Repeat that…Yea," Cid nodded his head, writing some information on the back of a bubblegum wrapper, "Okay. Yea, got it. Bye," he said as he hung-up the phone. Cid was the police chief of the Midgar Police Department. Cid was a 32-year-old man of about 5 feet 8 inches. He had short, blonde, spiky hair and talked quite roughly most of the time.   
"Who was that, Cid?" asked a cat-like creature with a red, fiery tail. This creature's name was Nanaki, but he is more commonly known as Red 13. Professor Hojo (he works for a company called ShinRa and has a somewhat crazy mind) gave the tattoo on his left shoulder, which was 13 in roman numerals, to him.  
"That was Zell. He said he found some info. on that murder case we've been working on for the past year!" Cid shouted. Some of the employees of the police station aren't what you'd call fast-paced and intelligent, but they're loyal and patient.   
"Oh, that reminds me. I just heard from…" Red 13 was interrupted by Officer Watts.   
"Sir!" Watts yelled as he barged into the police station, "I have information, sir!"   
Cid and Red 13 sighed, "What is it?" they said at the same time.  
"Sir! We have a new case, sir." Watts calmed down as he explained their current situation; " I was informed about this on my way to the station, sir."  
"Jeez, I wish all these cases would solve themselves," Cid complained.  
"Well," Red 13 began; "do you really expect the criminal to turn themselves in?"  
Cid sighed again and made an irritated face, "You know what I meant."  
All of a sudden, a young woman, who looked about 20-years-old and had long brown hair in a low ponytail, ran into the Midgar Police Department crying. Cid, Red 13, and Watts were extremely surprised. It's not everyday that you have people running into the Midgar Police Department crying and shouting things that are too jumbled together to comprehend.  
"Um...Excuse me, but can we help you somehow?" Red 13 asked politely.   
The woman stopped crying for a moment and shouted, "Of course you can help me! This is a police station isn't it?!"   
"Well, ya know," Cid started to say, "if you're looking for mental help, then you're in the wrong place."  
"Excuse me, but do you know who you're talking to?!" the woman asked, astonished.  
"Yea, you're Tifa Lockheart. The one who owns the bar across the street, right?"   
"Yes and a very tragic thing just happend to me. I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your sarcasm to yourself. I'll explain what happend since you'll have to know anyway."  
Watts yawned and whispered to Red 13 and Cid, "Sir, this is what I was told on my way here."  
And so, Tifa explained that her boyfriend was coming to meet her at the bar and when came in there was a hustle in the bar to make room for him (no, he wasn't fat). Everyone in Midgar knew that Tifa's boyfriend had stashed away 50 million gil, but no one would dare try to steal the money because he was a mercenary and an expert swordsman.  
"Anyway," Tifa began to say, "he came in and only after a few seconds, someone shot him!"  
"Ma'am, what was your boyfriend's name?" Watts asked.  
"Cloud, Cloud Strife."  
Red 13 seems suspicious; "did you notice anyone that was equipped with a gun?" In Midgar, it was common to see people with weapons to fight of the numerous monsters in the abandoned areas.  
"Yea, there were several people." Tifa replied.  
"Do you know their names?"  
Tifa nodded her head; "there was Vincent Valentine, Laguna Loire, and Irvine Kinneas."   
All of a sudden, the telephone rang and Cid answered it, "Hello?"  
"Hey! It's me, Zell. I'm at the bar and there's something gross in the floor."  
"Don't touch it!" Cid warned, "Just leave it alone 'til we get there." Then he hung-up the phone and motioned for Red 13 and Watts to follow him.  
  
When they got to Tifa's 7th Heaven, they all found the suspects sitting at a table talking about what had happend.  
Zell rushed over to the table and slammed his hands down on it, "All right! Which of you three did it?!" He asked.  
Laguna, Vincent, and Irvine all stared at Zell.   
"I have no use for his money. There's nothing that I need to buy and there's nothing that I want to buy," Vincent said.  
"Well, I bet you just have some kinda problem where you just go around killing people without a reason," Zell said unprofessionally.  
"No, I do not enjoy killing." Vincent said.   
Zell got out his notebook and crossed out Vincent's name, then he turned to Irvine. He stared at Irvine coldly.  
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't look at me. I don't even have my gun." he exclaimed.   
Then, Tifa came up behind Red 13, who was standing in the doorway, and stated, "but you had it with you when you came into Sector 7."  
"Huh? Well, yea but as soon as I heard that shot in here, I reached for my gun to protect myself and it wasn't there," Irvine replied.   
Red 13 grew even more suspicious and moved to let Tifa inside. Cid and Watts were starting to think that Tifa was the one who shot her boyfriend, Cloud.  
"Tifa, I have a question to ask you," Red 13 began, "How do you know that Irvine had his gun when he came into Sector 7?"  
"Err..."Tifa seemed as if she was searching for a good excuse, "Well, I...just happend to be where he was at the time."  
While Irvine, Red 13, and Tifa were discussing this, Cid and Watts had fallen asleep, Vincent disappeared somewhere since he wasn't a suspect anymore, and Laguna was walking around the bar looking for clues.  
Laguna looked behind the bar counter and discovered something extraordinary. Laguna found Irvine's gun!  
"Hey, guys! I found somethin'! It's Irvine's gun," Laguna said as he picked it up.  
"Hm.." Red 13 was contemplating the finding of the shotgun in Tifa's bar.   
"H-How'd that get there?" Tifa said, desperately looking for a way out; Irvine was blocking the only exit.   
Laguna was kind of an amateur sleuth, but he had a very good idea, "Tifa, you knew that Cloud had the key to the safe that the money was in, right?" Laguna didn't let Tifa answer. "Of course you knew. You were the only one that Cloud could really trust, so you used that trust to-" Laguna was interrupted by an angry Tifa.   
"All right already! I did it! I shot Cloud. I know that you know that I shot him because of his money. In his will he wrote that if he died then I'd inherit the money, since we have no kids. So, just arrest me already. I don't how many years I have to stay in jail. I just want to get away from you two." Tifa exclaimed, pointing to Laguna and Red 13.   
  
And so, the case was solved (not the way the employees of the Midgar Police Department wanted it to solved, though). Irvine got his gun back, Laguna got a new job as an officer of the Midgar Police Department, Cid and Watts got their usual daily nap, Red 13 got a raise, Zell got his paycheck cut back, Vincent went somewhere but no one seemed to care, Tifa was arrested and they all lived happily ever after. The only mystery that was left was, who would get Cloud's stash of 50 million gil? 


End file.
